The pragmatic particles of Singapore colloquial English

Abstract

Eleven pragmatic particles, loans from Southern varieties of Chinese, are used in Singapore Colloquial English. They express varying degrees of commitment to an utterance, and can be arranged on a single scale of assertiveness. They fall into three main groups: contradictory, assertive, and tentative. This paper uses data from natural conversation in the home, from, between, and with children acquiring Singapore Colloquial English as a native language. The pragmatic particles are acquired early and without error. Previous analyses of the Singapore Colloquial English particles suggest that analysts disagree on the functions of the particles. Each particle appears to have a wide range of multiple functions. These apparently disparate functions can be reconciled if the pragmatic particles are examined in terms of a system of marking degree of assertion, which result in different functions when the same particle is used in sentences of different types. No pragmatic particle in Singapore Colloquial English is associated with only one sentence type.